March Week 2: Spiritual Aging Study Guide

The Mystic’s Secret

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This Week’s Reflection

“Those of us who are older, wiser and fiercer have become privy to the mystics’ secret: to be old and awake is to be granted the freedom to choose which moments to which you arise.

It is up to you to decide what is to be the pace and aspirations your heart desires: that to which you are truly called. And what a surprise when you discover that even you, who have been so relentlessly busy accomplishing things for yourself, your loved ones and the world, can find yourself on the other side of ambition, with your heart still beating. Yes, even you can now just as likely be found sitting for long spells in silence, astonished to be feeling more alive than ever.

Others may misinterpret this as emptiness, but those of us who make the choice to change our pace are not devoid of anything. In fact, if anything, our hearts are overflowing.”

—Excerpt of “Second Week of March, Year One”: Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life

Questions for Journaling and Discussion

· Do you find yourself digging deeper than before to manufacture the energy and motivation it takes at your age and stage of life to keep going? If so, what is it that is driving you? Passion? Responsibility? Fear? Peer pressure? Martyrdom?

. What does reinvention mean to you? Are you called to replace the magnitude of what you used to do with something comparable?

. Who did (or do) you fear you would or would not be on the other side of external recognition, busyness or paychecks?

. What aspects of yourself and life did you have to put on the backburner during the heat of your productivity that are calling to you to pay heed?

. Of course, there are occasions to which we must arise. If you are currently being stretched, is this one of those occasions? If so, how will you know when to come down again?

. How are you at ratcheting up to get things done then remembering to reestablish the pace that is best suited to your desires and needs generally at this age and stage of your life when the occasion has passed?

Carol’s Commentary

In this reading I refer to those of us, once set to conquer the world, who are instead called to sit for long spells in silence, discovering that in doing feeling more alive than ever. I wrote this from personal experience. 12 years ago. When I turned 65, my husband Dan and I had the opportunity to downsize into the house of our dreams with the promise of increased freedom to choose how I spend my days. Dan, our little dog Lucky and I moved from Los Angeles to live near our grand family in Nashville, Tennessee. We found a stone cottage on the banks of the Cumberland River and settled in.